Apocalypse Empire (Book 1): Apocalypse Origins

by R. A. Neely

  Greg nodded. "When that's necessary then that's what we'll do. But right here? We can do something. Make it safe for whoever comes after, even if only for a little while."

  "Alright, man. I'm with you."

  "Are you listening? I said you could-" Greg fired and the bullet took the man in his shoulder, spinning him around to face his fellows. A second shot hit him in the back and he sank to his knees. James fired and took down another as they stood there in shock. That snapped them out of their stupor. One quickly scrambled over the roof of a car while the other abandoned all thought of fighting and fled off the side of the road.

  James lined up the shot and squeezed off a few rounds and the man fell to the ground a moment later. They saw a pair of hands go up on the other side of the car and held their fire.

  "Please, I give up! Don't shoot." Greg glanced at James and nodded. It looked like they were done here.

  "Alright," Greg said, "you can come out."

  The man stood up and hesitantly came to stand on their side of the vehicle. "Please don't kill me."

  Greg gestured towards the vehicles blocking the road. "Get those out of the way and you can go."

  "Really?"

  Greg nodded. "Your friend there was the ringleader so I'm done here. Clear the road and you're free to go."

  The man nodded his thanks and jumped into one of the vehicles. He moved it to the side of the road and then got into the other vehicle. James chuckled as the tires screeched from the man speeding away.

  "You sure it was a good idea letting him go?"

  Greg shrugged. "We took care of the one in charge. He won't be bothering people anytime soon."

  "Alright, good enough for me. Ready to get back on the road then?"

  "Yeah, let's go."

  Greg returned to his vehicle and chuckled as Carol pulled him into a fierce hug. "I'm okay. I didn't get hurt."

  "Okay," Carol said as she released him. "I was so worried when the shooting started. What happened?"

  Greg put the car and gear and started driving. "They were gonna let us go but I thought I'd do anyone following us a favor. They would've robbed anyone they could have gotten away with. Didn't feel right just leaving them there to prey on people."

  Carol nodded. "That makes sense. You know we can't save everyone though, right?"

  Greg chuckled. "That's the same thing James said. But yeah, I get that. I'm not trying to save everyone. Just didn't feel right leaving them there."

  "What if there had been more of them?"

  Greg shrugged. "I probably would have chosen differently. I felt we had the advantage there but I'm not gonna do anything to risk you or the others unless it's absolutely necessary."

  "Alright," Carol said with a nod, "that's good enough for me."

  "So I'm thinking we might need to change our plans."

  "What's wrong?" Carol asked.

  "Earlier, we agreed that heading into a town was a bad idea."

  "Yeah. You said it was too risky. I definitely agree after what just happened."

  "Well, now I'm thinking that maybe it isn't such a bad idea." He nodded towards their surroundings. "We're surrounded by fields right now. No place to hide our vehicles if we were gonna camp on the side of the road. If we do head into a town, maybe we can put the vehicles in a garage and just keep the lights off or something. It's still a risk but I think I might feel a little better with a wall in front me now."

  "Alright, I can see your point. Want me to call James?"

  "Yeah, go ahead."

  Carol nodded and dialed James's cell. She took a few minutes to explain Greg's current line of thinking and James and Laura quickly agreed. "They're on board. Do we stop at the town coming up or keep going?"

  "We'll stop," Greg said. "We'll have to make sure the place is safe and it'll be easier to see how things look if we've still got some daylight."

  Carol nodded. "Alright." She glanced out the window then back with a shy smile on her face. "I have a random question."

  "Okay."

  "What's your favorite color?"

  "My favorite color?"

  "Yes. I know it's silly but it's important."

  "How's that?"

  Carol shrugged. "I like to think we eventually would've gone out if all this didn't happen. Probably dinner and a movie and makes lots of small talk."

  "True. Guess we kinda skipped that stage. But I mean we've worked together for what, two years?"

  "Yeah but we never really had deep conversations. It was always about the job or just, 'how was your weekend?'."

  "Alright," Greg replied, "I see your point."

  Carol nodded. "If this goes on, maybe small talk will be what your favorite gun is but I don't know enough about that yet."

  Greg chuckled. "Blue. My favorite color is blue."

  "Okay," Carol replied. "Purple for me. Favorite movie?"

  "I don't really have a favorite. More like a list of ones that I really like maybe."

  "Okay, name one on your list."

  "Lord of the Rings."

  "Really? You're such a nerd!"

  "What? Come on, it's got everything. Action, drama, romance."

  Carol shrugged. "I tried watching it once, couldn't stay awake."

  Greg laughed. They continued in this vein for some time until they saw a sign on the side of the road. "Welcome to Cedar Forest," Carol read aloud. "Population ten thousand."

  "Alright. Let's hope we can find a good spot. We've still got a bit of daylight left. What time is it?"

  Carol glanced at the cell. "Five."

  Greg nodded. "Alright." He put his signal on early to make sure James wouldn't miss it. Greg turned into the first subdivision he saw and looked for likely spot. There were signs of the infection here. Cars were parked haphazardly and they were bodies in the streets.

  "It's gotten here, too," Carol said as she looked around.

  "Yeah, probably have to assume it's everywhere by now I guess."

  "How could it spread so quickly?"

  Greg shrugged. "We stayed holed up for nearly a week. Plenty of time for people to travel and get infected."

  "I was hoping we could outrun it or something."

  "Yeah, that would've been nice." Greg pulled into the driveway of a home whose windows were mostly intact. After James pulled up beside him, everyone got out and stretched their legs.

  "Alright," Greg said, "James and I will check the house out. You guys keep watch here. Keep your guns ready."

  At their nod Greg and James approached the house. They found the door unlocked which hopefully meant the occupants had left. The entered the house and began searching room by room. They saw signs the owners had left in a hurry. Clothes were strewn everywhere and the kitchen looked as if a tornado had hit it.

  "Looks good," James said as they returned to the living room.

  "Yeah, let's get that garage open and get everyone inside." James nodded and they headed for the garage to let everyone in. Once they had the door open, they brought the vehicles inside and everyone headed inside the house.

  "They were in a hurry," Laura said as she looked around.

  "Yeah," James replied, "maybe there's still something of use though."

  "I can check the kitchen for some food," Carol said, "maybe they left something."

  "Good idea," Laura said. "Come on, Maddy, give us a hand."

  "What can I do, dad?" Junior asked.

  "How about you look for some blankets? Check the closets. That way we won't have to unload anything from the cars."

  Junior nodded excitedly and raced off in search of his prize. Laura came over with a worried looked. "You sure it's safe?"

  James nodded. "We checked everyone room, top to bottom. Nothing in here but us."

  "Alright," she replied as she returned to the kitchen.

  "Why don't we cover the windows?" Greg suggested. "That way we don't have to spend the night in the dark."

  James nodded and the two set to work looking for anything they could
use to cover the windows. Half of their work was done for them already, the living room windows were intact and covered with heavy drapes. A few minutes with some duct tape sealed the drapes at the corners so no light escaped.

  "We found some food," Carol called from the kitchen.

  Greg headed over and saw Carol triumphantly holding two boxes of spaghetti. "It's not much," she said, "but it'll let us save the food in the cars."

  Greg nodded. "That's good. Anything we can take with us?"

  "Not much," Laura said. "Maddy found a couple of canned goods, but that's it."

  "Something is better than nothing," Greg replied. Greg returned to living room and saw James standing with a frown on his face.

  "What's wrong?"

  James shrugged. "Just thinking about gas. We got what, three cans?"

  Greg nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

  "I'm thinking we need to hit a gas station before we leave or siphon some cars or something."

  "Good idea. Keep the cans for emergencies. Probably better to do that in the morning."

  "Yeah. So, what do you think? We safe here?"

  "I'd like to think so, but we should probably sleep in shifts just to be safe."

  James nodded. "How do you wanna split it up?"

  "Probably from six to midnight. Then midnight 'til six or so."

  "Sounds good. Since we're gonna be looking for gas, maybe we should look at a few of these houses. Can't hurt to have more supplies."

  Greg nodded. That was a good point. They probably shouldn't expect to find shelter in a town every night. Some places just might not be safe be it from infected or other survivors. It was a good idea to stock up on as much as they could while they were able.

  "How much space left in the van?"

  "A bit," James said. "The tents are strapped to luggage rack so we've got some room."

  Carol stepped into the living room. "Food's ready."

  Greg smiled as he and James headed for the dining room. The girls had cleared away some of the chaos and set places at the table. The meal was just spaghetti but there looked to be plenty of it. Everyone took a seat and spent the next few minutes eating their fill.

  "We found some tupperware," Laura said. "We can take the leftovers with us. Stave off eating canned stuff for one more day."

  "Sounds good to me," James said after swallowing a mouthful.

  "Hey, Junior," Greg said, "any luck with the radio?"

  "Not yet. Still just a bunch of static."

  "Alright. Why don't you grab after dinner and I'll give it a try. I'll take first watch. Might as well have something to do."

  "How do the watches work?" Carol asked.

  "I think it's a good idea that someone be awake while the others are sleeping. I'll stay about 'til around twelve, then James will take over."

  "That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I mean you've been driving all day. Why not do shorter shifts? Laura and I can watch to."

  "That's right," Laura said, "you've both been driving all day. We can both do our part. We'll wake you if anything happens."

  "Can't really argue with that," James said.

  Greg nodded. "I guess you're right."

  "Of course we're right," Carol said. "We're all in this together. We can't afford to have able bodied people not pulling their weight. Especially if we ever decide to bring someone with us."

  She was right. It was good to get in to the habit of sharing the workload. Especially if they added anyone to their group. That would give people a chance to have a break. There wasn't that much to do right now but just getting to sit for a while could do some good. Greg thought about his group and felt they were holding up pretty well. It seemed they each had accepted the situation and were determined to survive.

  "Alright," Greg said, “guess I'll help clean up and get some sleep then."

  "No," Carol said shaking her head, "you go get some rest. Both of you."

  "Not gonna argue," James said. I'll take last watch if that's okay."

  "That's fine," Greg replied. "Wake me up at midnight." Carol nodded and Greg headed upstairs to find a suitable place to sleep. He found two bedrooms and chose the smaller one. James and Laura would need the bigger one for the kids. He found some clean sheets in a hall closet and set about making the bed. As soon as that was done he lay down and realized how tired he was. They didn't have to do any running today but the day had been emotionally draining. Between the woman they’d leave behind and those thugs that that had blocked the road, well Greg was glad the day was done.

  He thought back to the guys they had fought earlier and found he didn't feel any remorse. He didn't want to fight, but what they were doing was wrong. How many people would they have robbed if he hadn't done something about it? It bothered him a bit that he wasn't torn up about it but maybe James was right. He was just a man trying to protect the people he cared about. This was how things were. He was going to have to fight off infected and other survivors to keep everyone safe. He did give those thugs a chance, he didn't attack outright. He also couldn't stand by when people were doing something like that.

  The sound of the door opening interrupted his thought. A few moments later, Carol slipped in the bed beside him. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

  He shrugged his shoulders. "Just thinking."

  "Anything you want to talk about?"

  "Nah, I'm okay."

  "Come on Mr. Psychologist. It's not good to bottle things up."

  Greg chuckled. "I'm not. I think I've got it worked out for now. I was just thinking about that fight earlier today."

  "You alright?"

  "Yeah. So Laura took first watch then?"

  "Yeah. She'll come get me in a few hours."

  "So we've got some time then."

  "Time to sleep? Yeah, we've got plenty of time for that."

  "You know that's not what I meant," he said chuckling.

  "Oh? What did you mean?"

  "I'll show you."

  9 Shirley: Highway, Outskirts of Emerald Falls

  "What's that up ahead?" Shirley asked pointing.

  "Not sure," Jackson replied. He slowed the car down and they saw several bodies in the middle of the road. There was also someone poking around two cars that had had a head on collision.

  "What happened?"

  "Don't know. Infected maybe." Jackson slowly pulled the car forward when the figure standing near the cars suddenly turned in their direction. They could clearly see her blood shot eyes and saliva dripping down her chin.

  "Definitely infected," Jackson said. He picked up speed and drove around the roadblock. Shirley looked behind them to see the infected giving chase.

  "Looks like it's already out of the city," Shirley said as she faced the front.

  Jackson nodded. "No telling how far it's spread by now."

  "What's our plan? How far do we go today?"

  "We'll drive while there's daylight. If the roads were clear I'd say we switch off and get as far away as we can. That's probably not safe though. We might have to move some cars out of the way. I don't want to be poking around at night."

  "Yeah," Shirley replied imagining.

  "We'll stop at the next town if it looks alright. Maybe we can find some more supplies. I'd like to have more than just a few days of food on hand."

  Shirley nodded. They sat in comfortable silence for the next few hours until they saw a road sign. "Cedar Forest. We stopping here?"

  Jackson glanced at the clock. "Yeah, I think we should. We need to look for a few things. A map would be great. That way we could plan out our driving for the day. "

  "Alright, that sounds good. Do we find a place to stay first?"

  "Yeah, that's a good idea. We'll check it out and make sure it's safe before we go looking for anything."

  "So we need food, a map, what else?"

  "That's all I can think of for right now," Jackson replied as he took the exit ramp.

  "There's a subdivision up ahead," Shirley said pointing. Jack
son nodded as he took the turn.

  "It's gotten here, too," Shirley said as she looked around.

  "Yeah, we'll have to be careful. Let's find a house and get the car in the garage. Might be better to go around on food so we don't draw any attention to ourselves. No telling who's still around."

  "Okay," Shirley replied. "What about that house over there? Most of the windows are still there."

  Jackson nodded as he pulled into the driveway she had pointed out. "Let's check it out."

  Shirley nodded and followed Jackson inside. The front door was unlocked so they didn't have to break their way in. Shirley thought that was good in case they had to rely on that door later. They checked the house and were relieved when they didn't find any signs of infected.

  "Everything is clean," Shirley observed.

  "Maybe they weren't home when this happened. That's good news for us though. Maybe we can find some food in the kitchen."

  "Good point. Let's check it out." Shirley headed into the kitchen and started opening cabinets. "We lucked out. Lots of stuff in here. I'll set something out to eat and then we can put the rest in the car."

  "Good," Jackson replied. "I'll get the car in the garage."

  Shirley nodded as she began taking items out the cabinets. She found some canned goods which she set aside, they'd put those in the car. She also found some spaghetti and set a pot of water to boil.

  "Car's inside," Jackson announced as he entered the kitchen.

  "Alright. You're up," she said pointing towards the spaghetti.

  Jackson chuckled. "Nah, I think it's time we started teaching you how to cook."

  "What? Now?"

  "Why not? We've gotta eat right?"

  "This isn't gonna end well."

  "It'll be fine. I'll supervise." Jackson guided Shirley to the stove. "Let's see what they have in the way of seasonings." Jackson rifled through the cabinets until he found where the spices were kept.

  "Here we go. Salt, pepper, and basil. Nothing fancy."

  Jackson guided Shirley and they soon had an edible pot of spaghetti. "See," Jackson said, "that wasn't so hard."

  "I guess so. I am kinda pleased though."

  "This is seriously the first time you've cooked something?"

  Shirley laughed. "Hard to believe right? My parents were pretty well off. We actually had a chef that made our meals."